Source:  PRESS RELEASE, 7/13/11

With Washington drowning in red ink, high unemployment, and deficit reduction negotiations mired in partisanship, Senator Hagan last week completed her "Fighting for our Future" Budget Listening Tour to hear from North Carolina community and business leaders about their ideas to reduce our deficit and debt without abandoning critical investments. Hagan convened listening sessions in Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte and Wilmington.

"With Washington-as-usual partisanship stalling progress on serious deficit reduction and job creation, I convened listening sessions to hear from my best advisors - North Carolinians," said Hagan. "The difference between what I hear in North Carolina and what I see in Washington is incredible. Too many people in Washington are walking away from the negotiating table and putting politics ahead of what’s best for the American people. In North Carolina, the vast consensus was that we must work together to craft a responsible plan to reduce the deficit that is balanced, bipartisan and calls for shared sacrifice. My listening tour gave me an opportunity to hear from senior care professionals, economic development coordinators, educators, community bankers, veterans and others about their ideas to reduce the debt without forgetting our North Carolina values.  I will take their input back to the table in Washington as I continue fighting for our future and working to get our fiscal house in order."

At the Charlotte listening session, Hagan heard Gayla Woody, Aging Director at the Centralina Council of Governments and Susan Furtney, Executive Director of Care Ring, express concerns about the House proposal that would turn Medicare into a voucher program. Woody asserted that preventive care for seniors can save money and lives by preventing chronic diseases that are expensive to manage. Hagan, who voted against the Medicare voucher proposal, shared with the group her firm belief that our budget cannot be balanced on the backs of seniors.

The business leaders and community bankers who attended the listening sessions spoke about how the current partisan environment is affecting certainty for lending institutions and business owners who are unsure about whether to invest in growth opportunities for their companies.

“As a member of the Senate Banking Committee, I am working to foster certainty for our private-sector job creators,” said Hagan. “Washington’s current inability to put aside partisan differences to achieve meaningful deficit reduction or set clear regulatory rules of the road has left our small business owners unable to know whether they should invest in new equipment or hire new employees. Democrats and Republicans must come together to reign in our mounting federal debt, and let our small business owners do what they do best – put people back to work.”

In Wilmington, Steve Smith, U.S. Marine (ret.) and Chaplain for the Onslow County Special Incident Response Team, talked about the importance of protecting veterans’ services and programs.

“Any proposal to lower our deficit needs to be balanced and bipartisan, and it must put everything on the table, but there are commitments such as our promises to our veterans, our students and our seniors on which we can’t turn our backs,” said Hagan, who fought for the creation of the President’s Bipartisan Fiscal Commission chaired by former Republican Senator Alan Simpson and North Carolina’s own and former Chief of Staff to President Clinton and President of the UNC System, Erskine Bowles.

On July 25, Hagan is convening a panel discussion at UNC’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise on “The Debt Crisis & Saving our Fiscal Future.” The event at UNC Chapel Hill is free and open to the public, and it will begin at 10:00 am. For more information and to RSVP, click here.